To the limelight -
Series of self-portraits with defining objects or while an important daily action, put under the lights. A collection of videos from 2004 – 06 and a first-time-showing of painting works from 2017 – 18, (acrylic and oil-crayons on paper, wood and canvas).
?With these works I?m looking into lights, stage lights.. the lamps themselves, and the grid they are hanging from. But especially how it feels to stand on stage-center right under the blinding lights, in their hugging flame. It?s hot and you don?t see a thing! .. yet you are seen so brightly and to a distance…
but all the audience can see, in fact, is just a heightened illusion created by those lights. So you become a clear but flattened image of yourself, a portrait of an idea or a character reflecting the audiences own fantasy. Playing around with appearing and disappearing and the general craving to move between hiding and the limelight.. that?s what its all about.. a poetic endeavor to be seen and hidden and seen and hidden and seen and hidden?
Anat Stainberg is a cross disciplinary artist, working mainly as a performer, writer and video maker. Originally a professional actress from Tel Aviv, she graduated with Diploma for Performance Art from DasArts, Amsterdam in 2006. Lives and works in Vienna since 2007.
